The other day we found out which teachers our children have for the upcoming school year. I was in a small funk because my daughter’s best friend won’t be in her classroom like I thought she would be. She was devastated, and I ached for her thinking how switching schools this year is going to be harder for her because of that. Then I watched this video of a 4-year-old’s bucket list, and I realized how utterly ridiculous it was that I was wasting one minute of time fretting about something so petty.

His name is Nkaitole, and he lives in Kenya where one in five children doesn’t live to see his or her fifth birthday due to unsafe drinking water. In the video, he gets to check off the items on his bucket list, things like visiting the ocean and getting his first kiss.

The video was produced by WATERisLIFE to bring attention to their campaign to help bring clean drinking water to communities around the world, but the message for all parents is a powerful one.

Four-year-olds should not have to fulfill bucket lists. They should have their whole lives ahead of them. So while it’s beautiful to see him get these opportunities, it’s heartbreakingly sad to think of the many children around the world who will never get to do these things.

I hope it accomplishes their goal of getting donations to help supply safe drinking water, but I also think it’s one of things as parents we need to see to pull us back from the daily dramas and struggles we perceive in our lives.

From fights with friends to complaints about school lunches, carpools, and annoying parents who rub us the wrong way, we waste so much time and energy stressing about things that are really so silly in the scheme of things. With all the back-to-school madness this time of year brings, it’s an important reminder to slow down and focus on the things that really matter and to count our blessings for the things we take for granted.

Does this video make your parenting worries seem trivial?

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.  – Epictetus (55-135 AD) Greek Philosopher

Epictetus was definitely onto something way back in the day.  What we say (if we truly believe it) is most often what we end up getting or becoming.  We have said it here many times before… “Our lives tend to follow our language.”  AKA “What the mind can conceive it can achieve.”  Too often we may be focused on and talking about the problems, the possible negative outcomes, or our fears instead of our end goal.  We end up giving far more attention to what stands in the way of what we want than what we want.

Sure we know the end goal…but knowing it doesn’t equate to keeping it the focus of our creative energies, our words and our deeds.  If we truly move towards and become that which we consistently think about and believe… then being consistent in what we say, strive towards what we want to be = by doing what we must do is paramount to our SayBeDo legend and legacy.

My wife, Rebecca Epictetus Weisler says it this way. Act the way you want to be and soon you will become the way you act.  (SAYBEDO)

What do you say, what would you be, and what must you do to create your very own Legend of the SAYBEDO?

Kirk Out

We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life

is a miracle and mystery.

― H. G. Wells